'It's a way of living' Could Atlantic diet be healthier than its Mediterranean cousin?

Seagulls shriek, boats bob and the morning sun silvers the waters off the Coast of Death as two sailors take a break from winding up their congereel lines to ponder the sudden interest in precisely what, and how, people here have eaten for centuries.

- Sam Jones

Like many in the small Galician fishing town of Fisterra - whose name is derived from the Latin for land's end because the lonely peninsula on which it sits is about as far west as you can go in mainland Spain - Sito Mendoza and Ramón Álvarez are a little puzzled by all the fuss over the Atlantic diet.

The traditional diet, which survives in this north-western region of Spain and across the border in northern Portugal, has been hailed as an exciting and sustainable alternative to its better-known and more tanned southern cousin, the Mediterranean diet.

A recent analysis of a clinical trial conducted almost a decade ago found that eating the Atlantic diet - which is rich in seafood, fruit and vegetables, but which also incorporates meat, dairy and potatoes - significantly reduced the incidence of metabolic syndrome, the cluster of health problems that increase the risk of type 2 diabetes or conditions related to the heart and blood vessels.

Mendoza offers a simple gloss on the diet. "We eat everything but above all fish and octopus," says the 74-year-old local. "It's always been that way round here. What's the secret? I can't tell you. Maybe it's the climate but we do eat very healthily. The potatoes and the vegetables and the beans and the meat are all from here." His friend Álvarez chips in: "You need to keep busy; you need to keep moving!" Although both men retired in their late 50s, the conger lines they prepare in their wharf-side shed, which can snag up to 700 eels on a good day, keep them occupied.